Frank O’Connor, Halo Franchise development director, has confirmed that there is no Kinect support for gameplay in Halo 4.

O’Conner said, “Waypoint is more appropriate for Kinect.” Microsoft and 343 Industries never announced Kinect support for Halo 4, but many believed that it would offer some sort of Kinect support. According to O’Connor, Kinect support was not really suited for the core mechanics of Halo 4.

Halo Waypoint will get Kinect support at some point in the future, but it is yet to be determined when that will be coming to Waypoint. While some thought that Kinect supported controller for Halo might have been something that players wanted, it isn’t the kind of experience that would work well, if you ask us. On the other hand, voice navigation of Waypoint using Kinect would be cool.

Microsoft has announced that the Kinect Sports franchise is the most successful Kinect franchise so far, with Season 1 and Season 2 of Kinect Sports combining for sales of over six million units; and it continues to grow.

The news came as the company announced the Kinect Sports Ultimate Collection that we told you about some time ago. The Kinect Sports Ultimate Collection, as you might guess, includes Kinect Sports Seasons 1 and 2 as well as all of the DLC content and an All-Access Pass add-on.

While not yet officially announced, sources tell us that a Kinect Sports Season 3 is coming and it is believed that it will be for the Xbox 360, but some sources suggest that instead it might be for the Xbox Next/720; but with the success that the franchise has had, it is a no brainer that Microsoft will produce another title for the franchise at some point.

In an interesting turn of events, it would appear that Need for Speed: Most Wanted, due to be released soon from Electronic Arts and developer Criterion, will apparently offer more than just Kinect support.

The latest box art that we are seeing for the PlayStation 3 version of the game indicates that it also offers Move support. The box art indicates that it is “PlayStation Move Compatible,” which seems to indicate that it has been included.

While the Kinect support was indicated in the first wave of box art for the game, we were unable to see indications of support for PlayStation Move. So far, Electronic Arts and Criterion have remained quiet on what support might be included beyond the typical use of the controller. We suspect that we will hear something more official when we get a little closer to release.

Quite expectedly, the legal battle between Apple and Samsung is far from over, despite fruit themed toymaker Apple winning the last round. Apple has won an injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Nexus but Samsung filed a motion to stay the injunction over the course of the appeal.

Samsung argues in its case that the Court based its decision on "legally insuficient evidence" that Samsung and Apple are competitors. The company claims the order does not comply with Federal Circuit's directive, whereby the said loss of market share would have to be "substantial". Additionally, Samsung maintains that such a loss would have to be attributable to the infringing feature, rather than mere presence of a product on the market.

Samsung claims that the Court's "causation as to the 604 patent" was at least questionable, insisting that Siri is a different feature than the "unified search covered by the 604 patent". Samsung is apparently narrowing the scope of the patent, similarly to how some Apple's patents were handled earlier.

It is said that the judge will not stay the injunction for the entire duration of the appeal, but that she may do so until the Federal Circuit decides whether to stay it.

Microsoft has announced that starting today, they will be shipping a Kinect holiday bundle. The bundle includes the Kinect hardware plus three full titles for the same $150 price tag.

While the titles could vary by region, we know that the North American Kinect holiday bundle will include Kinect Adventures, The Gunstringer and Fruit Ninja. Kinect Adventures will be included on disc, while The Gunstringer and Fruit Ninja will be included as download tokens. The additional two titles represent an additional savings of as much as $50.

It is difficult to say how much of an impact adding The Gunstringer and Fruit Ninja to the bundle will make. The good news is that The Gunstringer and Fruit Ninja are two solid Kinect titles that are almost must haves for Kinect owners. Still, if you have not purchased a Kinect sensor yet, this surely does provide some additional incentive to do so.

Microsoft has released the demo for Season 2 of Kinect Sports that was developed by Rare and Big Park. The first Kinect Sports title proved to be so popular and so much fun that a Rare-developed sequel was a given. Additionally, developer Big Park has experience in developing Kinect titles, as the studio created Joy Ride for Microsoft that was controlled by Kinect.

Season 2 will feature six new sports for you to Kinect with, including: golf, tennis, baseball, football, darts and skiing. The demo offers a chance to check out both the golf and tennis games. One new feature is the in-game voice activation that players will get a chance to use in the games this time around. Within the demo you can use the voice control to change clubs or object to a call in tennis.

Kinect Sports Season 2 is scheduled for release on October 25th in North America. We suspect that this will be a big Kinect title this holiday season, judging by how popular the first Kinect sports title was.

Microsoft will be bundling the Q Entertainment title, Child of Eden, starting with Kinect units coming next week. The title will be offered as a download code that will be included in addition to Kinect Adventures and will still sell for the same $150 price tag.

The revised bundle will be offered in all regions except Japan, where Child of Eden has yet to be released. Child of Eden has received much positive press and has sold quite well so far, which apparently makes it a no brainer for Microsoft to bundle it with Kinect. It is unclear if this is a temporary thing that will only run from now through the holiday season, or if this will be the way the Kinect add-on is sold from now on.

With over 10 million Kinect units sold so far and over 10 million Kinect titles sold, the future for Kinect titles looks bright, with a number of Kinect titles coming this holiday season. There will be much more software for Kinect owners to choose from this holiday season which should help sell more Kinect units.

Sources have pinged us today with news that the much delayed Ghost Recon: Future Soldier could apparently offer Kinect support. While not required, wording on the case art suggests that the game is “better with Kinect sensor.”

Whispers we hear suggest that we will see a demo of what Ubisoft is thinking at E3 when we will get a glimpse of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, likely using the Kinect game play mode. Again, Kinect support is said to be optional, so you will still be able to play it with the controller.

The bigger question is when we will actually see Ghost Recon: Future Soldier released. While the Kinect support might explain some of the delay, we expect for Ubisoft to announce a firm release date at E3. If our sources are right, it is likely early next year, because Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will not want to release this holiday season and try to go head to head with MW3 and Battlefield 3, both of which will be dominating the military FPS titles this holiday season.

Microsoft Research has apparently come up with new “AI learning routines” that are likely to be incorporated into the Kinect software going forward. The new AI learning routines have the ability to track different body parts which improve accuracy and reduce lag.

Researchers have published a paper detailing their findings; and while Microsoft has not yet committed to incorporating this research into a future software release for Kinect, our sources tell us that they will. Increasing the accuracy of Kinect while at the same time reducing lag will be something Microsoft can’t afford to pass up. It will take some time to get it done, but we expect that Microsoft is already hard at work figuring out how to incorporate this research into a future release.

One thing is now known about BioShock Infinite, and that is that it will not be offering Move support on the PlayStation 3 when it is released. With Move support being ruled out, it is safe to assume that the Xbox 360 isn’t getting any Kinect support, either, but sources tell us that this really was not being considered.

While motion control isn’t going to be part of BioShock Infinite, we do know that the possibility of 3D does exist; and if the game would offer 3D support it would not necessarily be exclusive to just the PlayStation 3 (meaning it could come for the Xbox 360, as well). Still, 3D support isn’t the priority for developer Irrational Games at the present time; instead, the developer just needs to continue to develop the game.

While sources tell us that that Move support was at least considered, apparently there just isn’t a novel use of the motion controller within the game. Move needs something special within the game and BioShock Infinite doesn’t have a good reason for it at this point.